LeBlanc: General season for white-tail deer opens Saturday

Tex Bonin started into a puddle of water with his truck and this alligator ran out the other side.

Tex Bonin started into a puddle of water with his truck and this alligator ran out the other side.

Photo: Tex Bonin

Photo: Tex Bonin

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Tex Bonin started into a puddle of water with his truck and this alligator ran out the other side.

Tex Bonin started into a puddle of water with his truck and this alligator ran out the other side.

Photo: Tex Bonin

LeBlanc: General season for white-tail deer opens Saturday

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This coming Saturday is the general season opener for white-tail deer in just about all of the great state or Texas so a goodly number of us and our friends and neighbors will be headed out of town Friday night to the beloved deer camp.

All I have to say about Friday is hunters, when you are on the highway headed for the deer camp, you will be on the most dangerous part of the hunt, the public roadways. Therefore, fellow hunters I would offer a couple suggestions starting with leave the canned pop with the foam on top in the back of the truck and unopened, besides making good sense it is the law.

Another important enemy that must be battled on the way to the deer camp is fatigue. If you get tired and are with someone, trade off driving when you start to get sleepy and if you are alone pull over and rest. The season is open into January and a few hours sleep is better than an accident on the highway. Think about your family and the people who may be involved in an accident if you go to sleep at the wheel. If you are dead-set on self-destruction at least do the deed like a respectable hunter and get attack by a feral hog or something, but watch out for your fellow Texans on the road.

When you get to the deer camp, it will probably be dark assuming you have to leave after work on Friday and again here comes another suggestion, when you get out of your vehicle tired, but probably abnormally pumped up on coffee and anticipation of the coming hunt watch for alligators, snakes, scorpions, and spiders. The weather may have taken a couple days off from the rain, but the critters are still out. A friend of mine came out of his front door of his house this past week and there was a copperhead on his front porch alive and well.

Another friend of mine was out to his hunting lease in Liberty County a while back and he was driving down an old logging road that he has traveled to hunt for many years and he came to a long puddle in a low spot in the old road so he shifted down into four-wheel drive and when his front wheels hit the water an alligator bolted out of the other end of the puddle. This one was about three-feet long and did not like to be disturbed, but the gator decided to retreat.

Fishing Guide Billy Mills tells the tale of a deer camp that a friend of his has out in west Texas. Now there is nothing wrong at all with a hunting camp in west Texas except in this case there is no indoor plumbing, which means for those who have not had the pleasure of such an experience, there is no indoor bathroom or toilet. So when nature called it was necessary for one to trek about 20 yards back of the house to the outhouse.

We who were around back in the days before running water was the norm in rural areas of Texas have many and most are unpleasant memories of outhouses.

Outhouses of my remembrance make the modern Port-A-Can almost a joy to use. At least you don’t usually have to worry about Black Widow spiders under the seat in a Port-A-can or have it placed in the middle of the hog pen, as at my uncle’s place in Woodville, so you would have to take a healthy stick with you to beat off the hogs on the journey both to and from the facility.

Now back to Mills’ story of the deer camp out west, when it turned dark out there, rattlesnakes come out from under the camp house and laid on the front porch and on the path to the outhouse. Therefore, if it becomes necessary to go out after dark - and Murphy’s Law dictates that this event must materialize - a person needed a good flashlight, a keen eye, and a gun in hand to remove the unpleasant nocturnal residents between him/her and the outhouse.

I know this is pretty basic, but do not forget to unload your firearms when you get back to camp. If you are hunting with a muzzleloader take the time and trouble to unload it for the night. I know it is a pain in the neck to unload a muzzleloader unless you can just shoot the load out of the barrel, but to unload one is safer than having a loaded rifle in camp. You are also in better shape the next morning starting out with a fresh, dry load in you muzzleloader than wondering if your powder got damp during the night while you slept and will it fire when you pull the trigger on that trophy buck you will see.

So neighbors this first weekend of white-tail deer season think safe, act safe, and bring home a nice trophy from your hunt, but most importantly come home safely from your hunt.